Remember RHEINBERRY ? it was to fly between 200 000 and 130 000 feet, horizontally, but on rocket power - not with wings, and not with turbofans, as above 100 000 feet there is not enough oxygen left for airbreathing and lift.
And the Bell X-1 could fly horizontally at Mach 0.95 on pure rocket power, provided it was throttled the right way. Bottom line: with enough (rocket) thrust, even bricks can fly.
Aaaaaall right, I wanted to ask... whatif a rocketplane coming down from orbit into reentry, managed to get into horizontal ROCKET-SUSTAINED flight way above 100 000 ft, and then gradually throttled down the rocket engine to go subsonic ?
The idea: cancelling the sonic boom by going "subsonic" outside the atmosphere, since: no atmosphere, no boom.
Would that ever work ? (I guess the sonic boom (well, physics) would have a word to say, akin to "Hell, NO, we refuse to cooperate".)
Just asking in passing, if the idea is absurd, then shoot it down.
And the Bell X-1 could fly horizontally at Mach 0.95 on pure rocket power, provided it was throttled the right way. Bottom line: with enough (rocket) thrust, even bricks can fly.
Aaaaaall right, I wanted to ask... whatif a rocketplane coming down from orbit into reentry, managed to get into horizontal ROCKET-SUSTAINED flight way above 100 000 ft, and then gradually throttled down the rocket engine to go subsonic ?
The idea: cancelling the sonic boom by going "subsonic" outside the atmosphere, since: no atmosphere, no boom.
Would that ever work ? (I guess the sonic boom (well, physics) would have a word to say, akin to "Hell, NO, we refuse to cooperate".)
Just asking in passing, if the idea is absurd, then shoot it down.